Cruise Bruise Blog
January 19, 2009
January 19, 2009

Recently I was viewing a photograph of the daughter of  Richard Liffridge, who died during a fire board the Princess Cruises, Star Princess on March 23, 2006. That story reminded of me some cruise ship fires that turned out much worst than the Star Princess fire, leading me to decide to add those fire stories in depth to the main data base.

Fire And Sinking Aboard Yarmouth Castle Kills 90

This brought me the story of Jonathan Hamilton, only 14-years old when he died aboard the Yarmouth Castle after a fire broke out aboard in the middle of the night.

That particular case is worth noting not only because of the so many tragic deaths aboard, but because of the numerous failures of the captain and his crew in preventing the fire, and having failed that, in executing a quick response to the fire.

Then, failing that, to safely evacuate his passengers. The later was a challenge as the first of only six operable lifeboats out of the thirteen aboard, to sail to a nearby freighter had the captain and 15 members of his crew in it.

The heroic actions of two captains and their crew, and the failures of another captain and his crew tell a tale that shows the level of honor, one 'might' find aboard a cruise ship. This is a newly added story to the data base. You can read the story here

Fire Aboard The Scandinavian Star Kills 159

This story is not much different than that of the Yarmouth Castle. A cowardly crew, massive death toll, and more failures than an entire fleet ships should have, contributed to the deaths of 159 people. This cruise ship had two fires, both arson.

The crew members were of different nationalities and communicated purely by hand signals, and they were not trained for fire fighting or rescue operations. Again, the crew fled the ship in the beginning, leaving passengers to fend for themselves in the middle of the night.

With arson the cause of the blazes, it brings into question the threat from disgruntled crew, drunk or hostile passengers or terrorist  who might cause a major loss of life aboard a ship. You can read the story here

Fire Aboard The Carnival Ecstasy Injures 60

Had the Carnival Cruise Lines Ecstasy not been only two miles off shore, during daylight, close enough for six tugboats to quickly arrive with high power water streams to put the fire out, this story likely would have a title similar to the two above.

While Carnival initially said their crew put the fire out, an investigation and eyewitness reports told a different story. Crew interviewed said they attempted to put the fire out, but it got too hot, and they fled pulling fire doors closed behind them. In spite of having closed the fire doors, the fire continued to spread, engulfing four decks, several cabins wide.

Since the ship was only two miles off shore, people lined the beach, and watched from hotel, apartment and condo balconies as the tug boats poured tons of water on the blaze for hours.

If all this was not enough, numerous passengers found when they arrived to the hotel Carnival evacuated them to, they had money and belongings stolen from them when they inspected the luggage Carnival delivered to them.

Had this fire taken place late at night, as many other tragic cruise ship fires have, things would likely been much worst. You can read the story here

Fire And Sinking Aboard Achille Lauro Kills 2 Injures 8

On November 30, 1994, the Achille Lauro caught fire in the middle of the night, 150 miles off the coast of Somalia, and then over the next few days, slowly sank into the sea. Two passengers drown during the rescue.

The Achille Lauro, on a 21-day voyage,  had left Genoa on November 19th and had called at the ports of Haifa, Israel, and at Port Said and Suez in Egypt She was headed to  Mahe, in the Seychelles when tragedy struck. Two people died, a Briton and 68-year-old German Gerhard Szimke.

After the evacuation of the survivors, the nightmare continued. The first ship to respond was the Panamanian-registered Hawaiian King, an oil tanker that had no room below deck for the 1,000 victims they rescued. Two other tankers responded, and could offer little else than refuge on their deck.  This story has now been added to the data base. Read the story here